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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: =?UTF-8?B?Ik1yLk1pY2hhZWwgU3RlaW4i?= <tecnotrol@infovia.com.ar>
Date:
Subject:

Dear Friend,

I am Mr.Michael Stein, one of the top officials with= the Benin Republic Energy Corporation (BEC)
  I have an over-invoi= ced contract sum of $15.5MUSD in my ministry which I carefully put away and= now urgently need a reliable person to assist me receive it into his or he= r account overseas this fund resulted from a contract awarded by my govt un= der the budget allocation to my ministry and the contract was executed comm= issioned, signed and the contractor was paid his actual cost of the contrac= t and I am now left with the balance of US$15.5MILLION as the over-invoiced= amount which I have deliberately over estimated for my own investment.
=
  Civil servants here are forbidden to operate or own foreign bank= account and this is why I contact you for assistance.
  I have agr= eed to share the money as follows 40% for you the (account owner) and 60% f= or me.

  I have put in many years in service to the corporation= . I have been exercising patience for this opportunity for so long and I be= lieve this is a life time opportunity and I cannot afford to miss the oppor= tunity so I have careful maped out all my strategy and want to re-assure yo= u that this transaction is very much 100% risk and hitch free. As I have co= vered everything about the funds and nobody is looking for it and nobody wi= ll ever look for it.

  To get this fund paid into your account,= if you are not comfortable with nominating an already existing account as y= ou might have your personal funds in there, you are required to open a new = and empty account and send me the informations like the bank account number= s,the bank international transfer swift or routine number,Your beneficiary = name as appears in the account,Your residential address or office address,y= our bank name and address, your private Mobile and telephone number for eas= y and confidential communication.

  Soon as I get the info I wi= ll tender it to the bank for transfer of the funds and make arrangements to= come over to your country for my own share immediately the funds are trans= ferred to your bank account. All these will only take 7 working days to tra= nsfer the fund into your bank account right from the day I receive the requ= irements above as I am here to expedite actions and facilitate the transfer= with my position here,Act fast and send me your reply at my alternative em= ail address.Soon as I get your reply I will give you further details and al= so send you my direct tel.number through which we can be communicating.Send= me email on my alternative email: (mr.michael_stein1@= yahoo.fr)
Thanks
Yours Sincerely,
Mr.Michael Stein

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